Professor Jianjun Mei

SubjectMaterials Science

Fellow typeSenior Research Fellows

Year started2014

Biography

Professor Mei specialises in Historical Metallurgy and Materials

Jianjun Mei graduated from Beijing University of Iron and Steel Technology in 1984 with a B. Eng in Metallurgical Chemistry. He obtained a M. Sc in History of Science and Technology in 1988. He first came to Cambridge in 1994 as Li Foundation scholar working at the Needham Research Institute. In 1995 he began his PhD study at the Department of Archaeology, Cambridge University with a scholarship offered by the East Asian History of Science Foundation, Hong Kong. He was awarded a PhD in archaeology in 2000. After postdoctoral work in Tokyo and Cambridge he returned to China in 2004 as Professor at the Institute of Historical Metallurgy and Materials, University of Science and Technology Beijing, where he is currently Director. In recent years Professor Mei has been a leading member of the team formed to write the volume on non-ferrous metallurgy for the Science and Civilisation in China series, founded by the great British sinologist and historian of science Joseph Needham (1900-1995). He is active in a number of international research groups, and is currently President of the International Society for the History of East Asian Science, Technology and Medicine. In February 2013, he was appointed as Director of the Needham Research Institute.